June 04
Africa: 'We're Not Quite There Yet' - IPCC Chair Talks South Representation and More
In an exclusive interview, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discusses the ways forward for the next set of reports. Read more »
June 03
Africa: Land Squeeze - the Hidden Battle for Africa's Soils
Land grabbing is not just back with a vengeance. It is taking on new guises such as carbon offsets, green hydrogen schemes, and other "green grabs". Read more »
Ethiopia: In Abiy's Ethiopia, 200 Journalists Have Been Arrested Since 2019
The Nobel laureate won plaudits early on for releasing imprisoned journalists. Today, his government depicts journalists as spies and traitors, and is accused of arresting,… Read more »
May 31
South Africa: In Search of a Polling Station Without a Long, Winding Queue in Mid-Afternoon Jozi
In Soweto, they voted early; by mid-afternoon, most polling stations were deserted. Not so elsewhere in southern Johannesburg where middle-class, middle-aged voters bet on empty… Read more »
May 30
Congo-Kinshasa: 'All It Takes Is One Corrupt Official' - Huge Monkey Seizure Reveals DRC Trafficking Ring
One of the biggest ever illegal animals shipments in Africa involved senior conservation officials, suggest documents seen by African Arguments. Read more »
Nigeria: One Year Later, Tinubu Struggles With the Economic Question
Digging the country out of the hole it fell into during the Buhari years required an ingenuity never made available under Tinubu's economic shock treatment programme. Read more »
May 29
Ethiopia: 'After the Dam, Nothing Is Good' - How Ethiopia's Mega Project Devastated Centuries of Survival Strategies
Until recently, indigenous groups in the Omo Valley planted crops, foraged, hunted, fished, herded animals, and shared food. Now they face starvation. Read more »
Africa: '2024 Is Our 1994!' - a South African Election Travelogue
Almost two-thirds of the current electorate could not have voted in the first all-race elections in 1994. After the apathy of the past 15 years, why does voting feel so important… Read more »
May 27
South Sudan: Overloaded? Hope and Scepticism Around the Tumaini Peace Initiative for South Sudan
Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from… Read more »
May 24
Sudan: Violence Is a Symptom of a Profound Collective Failure
The ongoing conflict is an existential threat to the very idea of Sudan, not to be solved by negotiations featuring the usual suspects working on the old power-sharing formula. Read more »
May 23
South Africa: South Africa 2024 - What Are Parties Promising On Energy and Climate?
Some parties' manifestos fall shorter than others. Some fall so far short they would arguably take us backwards. Read more »
Congo-Kinshasa: What Are the South Africans Doing in Eastern DRC?
Unlike the SADC contingent that defeated the M23 back in 2013, the SAMIDRC force's tentative approach to the spreading conflict is raising questions about South Africa's real… Read more »
May 22
Mozambique: Nyusi's Dilemma Delivers an Unexpected Successor
Haunted by a corruption scandal, President Filipe Nyusi's search for an acceptable successor produces some unintended consequences. Read more »
Africa: The AfDB At a Crossroads - to Keep Funding Fossil Fuels or Not?
Next week, the African Development Bank should choose transparency, inclusivity, and a green future over continued support for oil and gas. Read more »
May 21
Africa: There Is an Alternative to Costly, Carbon-Emitting Chemical Fertilisers
Africa's soils are not merely depleted but in crisis, and decades of reliance on chemical fertilisers and pesticides have exacerbated the problem. Read more »
Africa: German Colonial Amnesia and the Destruction of Gaza
Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from… Read more »
May 15
Africa: Towards a Borderless Africa - How the AfCFTA Is Changing the Narrative On Continental Integration
Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from… Read more »
May 14
Africa: Don't Gaslight Africa - We Need Genuinely Clean Cooking Solutions
The IEA summit, where oil and gas execs are well-represented, will see gas as the solution. What Africa needs is people-centred renewable energy. Read more »
May 07
Ethiopia: Displaced Yet Again - Ethiopian and Eritrean Refugee Subjectivities in War Torn Sudan
Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from… Read more »
Kenya: 'This Flood Has Caused a Massive Shift' - Surviving in Kenya's Slums
Washington Mboya, an environmentalist in Nairobi, describes the effects of and response to the devastating floods in the city's poorest areas. Read more »
May 06
Africa: Malaria Is a Women's Rights Issue
When malaria rages, the women whose labour, visible and invisible, is the bedrock of the care economy, suffer; the effects reverberate across society. Read more »
May 03
Nigeria: Tinubu's Nigeria - a Year At the Edge of the Abyss
University students are among those hit hardest by the Tinubu administration's IMF-directed austerity programme. Read more »
Africa: $120bn Isn't Enough. Here Are 3 Ideas for a Truly Bigger Better World Bank
Leaders have called for a record replenishment of the Bank's grants and concessional lending arm. Much bigger changes are needed. Read more »
May 01
Burundi: Lake Tanganyika Reaches Record Levels, Submerging Parts of Burundi
Burundi is struggling to provide relief to hundreds of thousands and protect infrastructure as floods cause devastation. Read more »
April 30
Eritrea: Adwa's Shadows - Eritrea's Forgotten War Veterans
Ethiopia's triumph over Italy at Adwa is central to its national identity, but many Eritreans who were subjected to Emperor Menelik's brutal retribution for serving Rome recall the… Read more »